Rethinking Customer Experience to Enrich Brand Identity

Café Bene, Seoul, South Korea

Experiencing rapid growth in its market, Café Bene – a Korean coffee company – sought to create a manufacturing facility and culture center to reflect its brand identify and corresponding cultural experience. Recognizing its customers’ desire to engage with its brand, Café Bene worked with the design team to transform the traditional factory experience into one through which they could consistently engage and entertain their customers.

The design for the new Café Bene facility is richly inspired by the company’s culture and products. Within a rectangular envelope, production areas optimized for both product throughput and visitor exposure encompass a grand exhibition hall punctuated with a series of room-sized pods that blur the boundary between preparation and presentation. Immediately upon entry, visitors catch glimpses of the entire dynamic experience in exhibits, tasting rooms, lounges, showrooms and activity spaces showcasing enticing aspects of each manufacturing phase. Floating pods, clad in leather and rich wood reclaimed from coffee-bean shipping containers, contrast with the light-filled white-enamel-and-glass manufacturing areas. The façade, inspired by the creamy froth of latte art, employs modular composite metal panels in flexible array that responds to programmatic needs while providing variation, light and an iconic image within an efficient framework.